RavishedbyMoonbeam (8 page)

“My Danielle.” He didn’t follow the path of the bullet. All
of his attention was on her.

She released him with a loud pop. “Again.”

Her command was sharp and demanded action. He aimed the gun
once more, gritting his teeth with the descent of her mouth, her tongue sliding
over his shaft, her soft hands, warmed by the
zbran,
cupping his
varles
.

Krol shot bullet after bullet mindlessly as she licked and
sucked, tormenting him with her tongue and lips. He groaned, his restraint
cracking under the suction of her wet mouth.

“I must fuck you, my Danielle.” Krol dropped to his knees
beside her, the air filled with the scent of
zbrans
and sex. “I must—”

The chamber’s lighting flashed red. A siren wailed. “
Lejno
.”
Attack.
Krol jumped to his feet and yanked his garment upward, the
leather flattening his erect
spicka
.
My mate is threatened.
He
raced to the table and strapped guns and daggers onto his body.

“What is it?” His Danielle, his warrior female, drew one of
her guns. She was so small and soft and fragile. Krol’s chest tightened with
fear.

“The ship is under attack.” He clasped her empty hand and
tugged her forward, the warmth in her palm reassuring him. “We must return to
the sleeping chamber. There, I can better protect you.”

“Hell no!” Her pale face flushed with outrage. “Forget that
hiding bullshit. We have to protect the others.”

They exited the simulator chamber. “The others—” He stopped
.
The canine warrior ran toward them.

“Hey there, Puppy.” His Danielle patted the beast on his
head. The appendage she called a tail moved from side to side. “How did you get
out?” She looked up at him, her eyes wide with the realization he’d already
come to. “Krol, that he’s here means…”

“Yes.” Crew hurried along the corridor, dressed for battle.
Krol breathed in deeply, smelling war and death. The intoxicating combination
no longer filled him with anticipation. He glanced at his Danielle and his
heart filled with dread.

“Return to the simulator chamber, with haste!” He pushed her
inside. The canine warrior jumped around them, relaying news of the attack upon
their sleeping chamber with short, loud barks.

“Your friends need—”

“They come for you, my Danielle.” Krol sealed the door. The
lights flickered.
Lejno.
He moved faster. “Puppy tells me no other
sleeping chambers were searched.” He ushered his Danielle toward the far wall.
“The
Mravenec
dare not attack your planet. They cannot attack
Sila
.
Instead, they attack
Sila
’s future.” The main lights ceased functioning,
leaving the dim glow of the emergency illumination.

“Or the bastards are here for you.” His Danielle glowered
darkly, her blonde hair draped like a golden ring of vengeance around her
beautiful face. “If that’s the case, I’ll blast their asses into space.”

“Fabricate barrier,” Krol instructed. Nothing happened. “
Lejno.
They have disrupted fabrication.” He overturned the target simulation table,
the bulletproof design creating an effective barrier. “Down.” He shoved his Danielle
to her knees and he crouched beside her, shielding her with his body. He aimed
toward the door,
zbrans
in both of his hands.

Puppy snuggled between them, whining, his tail beating
against the floor. His Danielle laid her hand on Krol’s arm. “So what’s the
plan?” she whispered, gazing up at him, her eyes large and trusting. “I take
the ants on the left and you take the ants on the right?”

His stomach clenched with alarm. “I shoot. You do
not
shoot.
You hide.” She narrowed her eyes and her cheeks grew bright with pigment. Krol
kissed her sputtering lips. “If you are terminated, I am terminated, my
Danielle.”

“And what the hell do you think will happen to me, you great
big goliath?” An alarming sheen covered her blue eyes. “Besides, warriors don’t
hide, my Krol. We fight.” She raised her gun, peeking over the tabletop. “And
I’m fighting. I’m going to blast some bugs,” his Danielle muttered under her
breath. “There will be none of that reading their rights, innocent until proven
guilty malarkey. I’m shooting on sight.” His
druzka
continued to word
share, her voice soft, as they waited.

Booms rocked the chamber. The door pounded again and again
with blasts, the metal denting, denting, denting, until it fell to the floor. A
terminated
Silan
warrior lay upon the metal, his eyes open and
motionless, a hole where his internal organs should be. His Danielle gasped.
The space filled with smoke.

A larger
Silan
backed into the chamber, shooting
frantically. A flaming bullet caught him in the face. Skin and flesh splattered.
Krol grimaced. His Danielle flinched beside him.

Mravenec
feet clicked on the metallic floor and Krol
readied his weapon. A red antenna appeared.
Wait. Wait. Wait.
His
Danielle shot her
zbran
.
Lejno. Too early.
The bullet hit the
wall and the
Mravenec
warrior pulled back, retreating. Krol gritted his
teeth in frustration.

The low murmur of
Mravenec
speak reached his hearing
system. He tilted his head and counted voices.
Sladky matka
.
Too
many.
He required assistance. Krol nudged his Danielle’s shoulder and held
up numerous fingers. She nodded, her countenance losing pigment, and he grinned
at her, attempting reassurance he didn’t feel.

The enemy attacked in full force, streaming into the room
from both sides of the entrance. Krol shot
Mravenec
face after
Mravenec
face.

His Danielle shot a
Mravenec
in the chest and the
impact threw his body back toward the others. “Fuck. Face. Gotta get them in
the face, Officer Danielle.” Her next shot removed the
Mravenec
’s head.
The red torso fell forward and the terminated warrior’s many arms twitched.

Krol’s grin became genuine. His female was fierce and able.
The unexplainable warmth spread in his chest.

Puppy barked a warning as three
Mravenec
warriors
surged toward him in a synchronized attack. Krol calmly shot one, dodged the
return fire and then terminated the second. Pain burst in his left shoulder,
hot and severely intense. He inhaled sharply, his
zbran
dropping from
his useless fingers.

Lejno!
Utilizing the
zbran
in his right hand,
he released a barrage of bullets on the remaining warrior until the chamber was
empty and the
Mravenec
male was terminated. Krol retreated fully behind
the table to reload. Puppy leapt onto his lap and licked his face
enthusiastically.

His Danielle was also reloading, jamming full cartridges
into her gun. “My Krol.” She touched his unharmed shoulder. Her full lips
flattened with concern.

Her concern was for him. The warmth in his chest crept up
his neck ridges. “Shoot,
druzka
,” Krol urged, self-disgust churning his
stomach.
If I was a better warrior…
“Do not allow their advance.” He
discarded the used cartridges and replaced them, the ritual focusing his
emotion.

“Right.” She shot and ducked, evading the flying bullets,
her face smudged with dirt, yet beautiful and strong. “You can count on me, my
Krol. I won’t let you down.”

I should not have to count on my mate.
Krol grunted
and turned, joining her in their fight, shoulder to shoulder with the female he
had crossed galaxies for. The onslaught of
Mravenec
warriors slowed, and
hope sprang to life inside Krol.
We have—

A tall, lean warrior stormed into the chamber, his torso a
red blur. He rolled and shot with an effortless grace, using the discarded
single-ass support as a mobile shield, his other three arms holding advanced
weaponry.

“
Lejno
.” Krol concentrated his defenses on
Mravenec
’s
top warrior.

“The best fights the best, Warrior Krol,” his enemy boasted
in his native language, and his pinchers stretched into a mocking smile. “Long
have I waited for this battle.”

“Your battle is with me,
Mravenec
.” Krol blasted at
the single-ass support, denting the metal. “Allow my
druzka
to leave the
chamber unharmed. She is a frail human female and no threat to the
Mravenec
race.”

His Danielle terminated a lesser
Mravenec
with the
ease of an experienced warrior, and Krol grimaced.

“Is she no threat?” The
Mravenec
warrior laughed. “My
Supreme Commander disagrees with your assessment,
Silan
. We cannot allow
you to reproduce. She is to be terminated, as are you.”

A killing rage swept over Krol. “You will not terminate my
Danielle.” He aimed at his rival’s smirking face and fired a round of bullets.

His shots were deflected off the metal single-ass support,
the
Mravenec
’s multiple arms moving in a blur of motion. The tabletop
bent under the counterattack, pushing Krol and his Danielle back against the
wall. As Krol battled the warrior, his
druzka
terminated entering
Mravenec
foot soldiers until the flow slowed and stopped, the noise of the battle
continuing outside the chamber.

“Only one big bug left, my Krol,” his Danielle crowed with a
triumph Krol didn’t feel. “Cover me.”

Cover her?
He frowned as he shot.
What did—

She rolled away from the protective table and repositioned
behind the other single-ass support, her smaller form shielded yet vulnerable.
Puppy whined in protest, remaining huddled by Krol’s feet where his stubborn
female should have also stayed.

“My Danielle,” Krol yelled. He fired franticly at the
Mravenec
warrior. A bullet removed one of the enemy’s limbs, but that injury didn’t stop
him from focusing on Krol’s female, his guns swinging in her direction.

His Danielle grabbed the seat. “Oh, shit.” The heavy
single-ass support didn’t move. “Oh shit. Oh shit.”

Krol ran toward her with Puppy following. The first shot
landed on the single-ass support seat and flung his Danielle backward. The
second shot cracked her breastplate in two, leaving her soft, frail body
completely exposed.

His Danielle shot wildly. “My Krol.”

Her whispered plea reached him through the thunder of
gunfire and Krol flung himself into the air. “My Danielle!”
She cannot be
terminated. I must protect her.
He twisted his body to shoot at the enemy.

Pain burst in his gut. His Danielle screamed and an
intolerable weight pushed down on his chest, squeezing the breath from his body.
Krol slid, his back ridges scraping along the metal floor. He fired shot after
shot at the approaching warrior.

Puppy, their canine warrior, attacked, closing his jaws
around one of the
Mravenec
warrior’s many arms, causing the male to
shriek in agony and rendering his weapon unusable. The warrior shook and
flailed. Puppy would not be removed.

“You bastard.” His Danielle cursed their foe’s lineage.

The
Mravenec
warrior turned his head in his
Danielle’s direction, leaving his head unshielded, and Krol fired one last
shot.
Direct hit.
His rival’s face blew into many pieces, his brain
splattering on the wall, and he fell to the floor. Puppy pounced on his
twitching form in triumph.

“My Danielle.” Krol smiled weakly.
She is safe.

“My Krol.” She kneeled by his side. “Shit. You’re torn up
bad.” His Danielle placed her cool hands over his wound. His blood flowed
through her fingers, warming her skin. “Warrior down!” she yelled and he
grimaced, her volume loud. “Medic! I need a medic!”

“Fixer,” he corrected, gazing into her eyes. They had
deepened to a dark blue.

“I need a Fixer! A Fixer!”

He heard her words as if they’d been spoken at a great
distance. Sound rushed in his ears and blackness threatened to overcome him. He
held death back, wishing for these last units of time with his
druzka
.
“My Danielle.”

“Warrior Krol Nowak.” Warrior Miar Najazd’s voice sliced
through the humming. “The
Mravenecs
have been terminated.”

His Danielle’s face was pale. She was so soft, so fragile,
so in need of protection, and Krol had never felt this much pain, this much
weakness. Warrior Miar Najazd appeared over her shoulder, his face blackened
with the heat of battle. Warrior Miar Najazd, his friend and
Sila
’s
number two warrior.

Protect. My Danielle. Lejno
.

Krol placed his Danielle’s left hand in Warrior Miar
Najazd’s outstretched palm. “Your Danielle.” He forced the words past his cold
lips, feeling an agony deeper than any wound.

Warrior Miar Najazd raised his forehead ridges, grave
comprehension in his black-and-green eyes. “My Danielle.”

“Your Danielle.” Krol released his hold on consciousness and
slipped into the darkness. She was safe.

“What the hell?” Danielle snatched her hand away from the
strange alien and placed her palm over Krol’s ridged fingers. “I’m
your
Danielle,
my Krol, and I need a goddamn—”

Two smaller aliens dressed in blue brushed against her,
chattering in their own language, their faces animated.

“Finally!” She stepped away from Krol to allow them room to
work. “You assholes took your sweet fucking time.” Danielle reached for her
discarded space gun, curling her fingers around the handle, comforted by the
touch of cold metal against her skin. “He needs surgery. Right away. He’s
bleeding badly.”

The Fixers lifted Krol onto a floating stretcher. Danielle
moved with him, resting her gunless hand on Krol’s big thigh. “You can fix him,
right?” He was so cold, and his eyes, before they closed, had stopped swirling.
That’s a bad sign. It has to be.
“Because he can’t die. I won’t allow
him to die.”